Businessman denies attempted promissory note fraud

Baturin, brother of former Moscow mayor's wife, has been charged with attempted grand fraud

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MOSCOW, November 29 (Itar-Tass) — Businessman Viktor Baturin, who was charged with attempted fraud on Tuesday, insists on his innocence, his lawyer Igor Shabanov told Itar-Tass.

"My client denies guilt of any fraud; he stated it to the investigator today, and added that INTEKO vice-president Oleg Soloshchansky slandered him," Shabanov said.

On Wednesday morning, Moscow's Tverskoi court will consider the investigator's petition to select arrest as the measure of restraint for Baturin.

Baturin, brother of former Moscow mayor's wife, has been charged with attempted grand fraud.

According to the investigator, on November 28, he presented a false promissory note of the INTEKO company at its office in Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street, 28. It was worth 10.8 million roubles, and Baturin demanded immediate payment.

INTEKO personnel had misgivings regarding the authenticity of the promissory note. They called police who detained Viktor Baturin.

"One can conclude from the defendant's testimony that he was aware that the security was not authentic. In addition, he stated he had signed this promissory note at director order of INTEKO president, his sister Yelena Baturina, and that there were several such promissory notes in his office," the Interior Ministry's main office reported.

In June 2011, Moscow's Presnya court gave Baturin a three-year suspended sentence for real estate fraud.

The entrepreneur did not challenge the decision acknowledging that the verdict did not evoke any special emotions in him.

"A verdict is a verdict; a severe reprimand on record; nothing to worry about," he said then.

He expressed the opinion that the case against him had been doctored and that it was connected to Yuri Luzhkov's resignation and Yelena Baturina's financial dispute. He did not rule out new criminal cases against him.